The Night of The Hunter
by Darrell DeWeese
Summary: A woman, a bar, and a mutant with adamantium claws. Logan finds out that the nightlife can be deadly when he meets a woman that has a story to tell.
1. Chapter 1

The beer was cold and it was cheap. What more could you ask for?

I was in one of the many dives in this great country that I adopted, with sawdust on the floor, a smoky ambience, and waitresses who still had their looks, albeit barely.

Oh yeah. I'm a mutant.

Being a mutant in today's world in not so bad. I look human, so I can walk around without getting into too much trouble. That's the theory, anyway. The truth is, no matter how hard I try to stay away, trouble has a way of finding me.

My name's Logan, by the way. I have a code-name, and even a fancy-shmancy suit that I wear sometimes. I try not to wear it too often, though. I'm more of a t-shirt and jeans kinda guy.

A mutant. It really is a dirty word. I have animal instincts, and one hell of a healing factor. Cut me, dice me, slice me, and I bounce back, good as new. But it still hurts.

I have friends who are mutants. One of them is blue, furry, and loves to freakin' talk. Half the time I have no idea what he's saying, so I nod along, until he gets to a part I do understand. This morning he started talking. He was running tests on my animal senses; he wanted to know the limits of them. Could I talk to dogs, for example? Like a dog has anything to say.

He said he found an interesting coorelation between my animal senses and my so-called 'Berserker' rages. I told him he was being awful loose with the term 'interesting'.

Hank was a pistol all right. He laughed, which sounded like a big cat purr to me, and said, "Logan, I have a feeling your 'rages' are connected to your instincts. What do you feel when you go into these rages?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. I feel detached. Like I'm outside of my body looking in. Like someone else is driving. Mainly, I just feel liberated, I guess. You think that's what an animal feels? You ain't making me feel any better, comparing me to some animal."

He chuckled again. Hank carefully adjusted his glasses with his huge paws. "Well, at least you don't look like one. I have to admit, I have these.. urges.. at times. I feel the need to just run outside and be alone. But my instincts and senses are nowhere near the level of yours. You have amazing powers of recuperation which seems to suggest certain traits of certain lizards. You have a strong sense of scent, and a strong instinct of worth...you seem to instinctly know who to trust and who not to trust, much like a canine."

I shook my head. "If you say so. I don't know how they work. You wanna figure it out, be my guest. I really don't care one way or the other."

That kinda frustrated ol' Hank. He is about knowing, and can't understand people who doesn't want to learn everything they can about themselves. I know all I need to know about me. I'm a killer. Back in the '60s, some government thought it would be a blast to line my bones with an unbreakable metal and make me a goddam slave by wiping my memories and installing a bunch of fake ones. I have no idea what my birthday is, or even how old I am. Some old-timers have remembered me from WWII. All I know is who I am now.

Anyway, I blew outta of the mansion and headed to one of my homes away from home. I nodded to the bartender; we had an unspoken arrangement. He fills my glass and keeps it full, and I try my damnest to keep it empty. It was quiet that night. I noticed the regulars drinking and running from their lives,and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone that seemed to be out of place.

She was probably in her mid-20's, blonde, and very attractive. She was at the end of the bar, and even without my enhanced senses I knew she was scared. She was also watching me intensely. She ordered another drink, which was a bourbon on the rocks. Can't fault her taste in booze. I was about to walk over and talk to her when the front door slung open.

Frat boys. Drunken frat boys at that. They burst in and began to immediatly outwear their welcome.

The leader was obviously the blonde one. "Come on. Let's get some cheap brews, and then we can hit the club."

"Ugh. This place stinks."

"So hold your breath. Barkeep! Round of brews, let's go!"

I glanced at the bartender. He had that uneasiness about him, like he knew this would all end badly. I had the same feeling.

The boys started drinking, loudly and often. The regulars tried to ignore them, but it wasn't easy. I watched them. I knew what they were. They had never done an honest day's work in their life, and was now preparing to do a lot of dishonest work for the rest of their life. I never had any use for so-called "Higher Learning."

Then one of the boys noticed the blonde. "Hey, honey, what the hell are you doing in this dump?"

She shrank away. She looked down at her drink, hoping he would go away. No such luck.

"Come on, baby. What, are you a 'working girl'? Who the hell do you think you can get to pay for it in here? Most of these guys look like they just got out of the soup kitchen."

"Please, just leave me alone." A meek voice full of fear and pain. My rage started to rise.

The creep laughed and then he touched her face. She recoiled. That made him angry. He grabbed her. "You little whore. You know who my father is? I could have a dozen girls like you anytime I want. But right now I want you."

That was enough. I stood up and walked over. "She wants to be left alone. I suggest you do what she says, and settle down, bub."

He looked at me, blearily. He smiled and let her go. He was full of swagger and arrogance. "What, you her pimp? You little runt, get the hell out of here before me and my boys put you down."

I smiled. "Ready whenever you are."

He laughed and reared back and hit me in the jaw. Not a bad punch. He howled in pain and held his hand. I spat blood and smiled. Unbreakable bones can be fun, sometimes. "You got a free shot. I can either take mine, or you can leave. Your choice."

He was a hard-headed son of a bitch. He snarled through the pain. "Screw you!" His boyfriends came over to see what the hub-bub was. "Get this asshole!"

Three of them; they looked like they worked out. I cracked my knuckles and grinned. "Nice night for a fight."

Fifteen minutes later it was over. The boys from Phi Kappa Idiot were outside, bruised and bloody, but alive. The barkeep sent a beer down for me, on the house. "They come in here every so often. They cause a lot of problems, and the money they spend ain't worth the aggravation. I got a feeling they won't be coming back."

I raised my glass to him and drank. The blonde smiled at me. The night was just beginning.


	2. Chapter 2

I found out her name. It was Julia. I ordered her another bourbon for her nerves, and she seemed to relax..not much, but a little. I could smell the fear on her. She wasn't afraid o' me, but something had her spooked.

She sipped her bourbon, and the smile was gratifying. "Thank you..for the drink and the gallantry."

"Nothing gallant about me, darlin'. I figured those boys needed a spankin', and 'sides, they were ruining the ambience of this fine establishment."

Julia giggled. Her features were soft and sweet, like the girl next door. "Well, anyway, thank you...umm.."

"You can call me Logan."

"Logan."

"So. What are running from?" Tact never was one of my strong suits.

"R-running? I-I'm not running from anything." A lie. Funny thing, people smell different when they're lying. She was lying because she was scared. I decided to let it go. She would tell me when she was ready.

"Ah, hell. Don't mind me. I talk sometimes, and my brain has a hard time catching up. If I offended you, I'm sorry. I can leave you be." I started to walk back to my stool. She put her hand on my arm.

"No, it's fine. I'd like you to stay. Please." She motioned to the bartender. "The next one is on me, though."

I smiled. "Fair enough. So. Where you from?"

"Columbus, Ohio. I'm attending college at NYU."

"Oh, yeah? What're studying?"

"Oh, um...I really haven't decided a major yet." She seemed a little embarrassed about the revelation.

"Well, it's an important decision. You should let it choose you."

Julia smiled. "You seem to be quite the philosopher."

I laughed. "I don't think anyone has ever called me that. Not sure if it's a valid assumption, but I thank you anyway."

She laughed, and I found myself enjoying the company. Usually when I come to these kinda bars, it's to get away from everyone and everything. My loner thing. But meeting her that night really made me realize I need human contact more and more.

The night was going well. We drank and talked, played pool and darts. She seemed to loosen up a little. Then I caught a scent of something. Something strange.

She noticed how quiet I got. "Logan? What's wrong?" I felt the floor boards vibrate. Something heavy was heading this way.

The door exploded. I covered Julia, and I thought I heard her say something like, "Not now!" The smoke and debris was thick. It cleared and the thing that caused it was standing there.

It was a monster. A huge beast, it looked to have the head of a wolf, the torso of a lion, and arms and legs of some kinda ape. A lizard tail was swinging back and forth, which resembled a stegosaurus tail, with the spikes and all. It was at least 10 feet tall, and its scent was hard to match. Didn't smell human. Didn't smell animal.

It stood and sniffed the air. It spoke. It said, "Julia." It came out _Joooo-leeeaaaa_. I looked down at the woman in question. She said, "Help me. Please."

The bartender reached for his bat. He screamed and rushed the damn thing. The tail was a blur, and I watched as the bartender hit the ground, belching blood. No more playing around. I stepped away from Julia and unsheathed my claws. Three razor sharp claws jutted out from the back of my hands. All three coated in that magical metal.

I yelled out to the regulars. "Get to the back o' the bar." I turned to Julia. "You too, darlin'. I don't want you seeing this." She was staring at my claws. The beast saw her and turned. "_Jooo-leeeaaaa..._" I stepped towards it and charged, being mindful of its tail. I roared and swiped. I dodged the tail, and I had a peach of a shot. My claws were closing in on it's throat. It was faster than I thought. Those ape arms came up and swatted me. Hard. I went flying into the bar, the speed and my weight reducing it to rubble.

I jumped up fast and felt the pain. A piece of wood was lodged in my arm. I yanked and howled, the pain and rage building. I started to feel myself becoming detached. The blood in the air was thick, I grunted and growled, ready to feast on my prey.

The girl saved me. She grabbed me and screamed my name. I focused and saw her face. "Julia."

"Logan, we have to get out of here! Please!"

The beast was growling and snapping at the air. The regulars took my advice and got the hell out of the bar. Just two killers and a girl. She grabbed a bottle of booze.

"Little late for a drink, ain't it?"

She shook her head and threw it at the thing. It smashed in his face. The beast howled, and the girl pulled me to my feet. We ran for the door. It didn't even blink in our direction.

I led Julia to my bike. "How the hell did it miss us coming out of there?"

Julia was out of breath. "He- It's blind. It uses scent to track its prey. The booze disabled him for now, but we really need to get going."

I started the bike. I yelled, "How the hell do you know that?"

She wrapped her arms around me, and she buried her face in my back. I could feel the warmth of her tears. Then a whisper, just enough for my enhanced hearing to hear: "He's my father."


	3. Chapter 3

We rode north, on her suggestion. She was quiet on the way. The night wasn't too cold for September, and we made the the trip without any problem. We found a motel near the Canadian border.

She was quiet. I told her to take a shower, try to relax. I opened the bottle of Beam I had in my bike's saddlebag. I lit a stogie, and took a shot. I checked my arm. A slight scar where hours earlier the muscle was exposed. I flexed it. Another hour the scar would be gone.

I pulled the communicater out of my pocket. It was round, with a bright red 'X'. All I do was key in the code, and my friends would come running. I held it, and smoked my stogie and drank another shot and stood there. I heard the water shut off in the bathroom. I put the comm away.

She came out, steam whooshing behind her, with her clothes on and drying her hair. I threw her the clothes I had in the saddlebag. "Here. There's a couple o' t-shirts in there. No pants, though."

She nodded and walked back in the bathroom. I flicked my ashes in the ashtray and poured Julia a shot. She walked back out of the bathroom and and tried a weak smile. "Your turn."

I nodded, and handed her a shot. She smiled and took it, knocking it back fast and hard. She sat down on the bed and pulled out her cigarettes and grabbed the ashtray. She saw the look on my face. "Take a shower. When you come out, I'll tell you everything."

The shower felt good. I tried to get the smell of the beast off me, but it was inside me. The water rushed over me, the steam filled the room and I wanted to run, I wanted to burst out of the prison and hit the forest and let the animal run free..

The water turned cold. I went to turn the faucet off and I noticed that my claws were unsheathed. I retracted them and stepped out of the shower and looked in the mirror. The animal wanted to run, his eyes stared back at me, full of malice and rage. I stared him down.

I walked out of the bathroom and sat down on the bed next to Julia. She was propped up, smoking.   
She had an ashtray in front of her, and she took another drink and told me her story.

Julia was an All-American girl. Cheerleader in high school, high SAT's, ready to start her life. She had a father that loved her more than anything, and she loved him back.

Her mother died in childbirth. Julia's father told her all about her mother, and she fell in love with her instantly. She held her mother close to her heart, and missed her everyday. Through her father, Julia was close to her.

Dad was a science teacher in the high school. The kinda guy everyone liked, and the kinda guy that you could count on. He was a 'cool' dad; Julia's friends loved to come over and hang out, never feeling out of place, never feeling as if they were intruding.

But Julia knew her father was sad and lonely. Julia told him it was okay, Mom would want him to be happy. Dad would smile in that way of his, and say, "I am happy, honey. I get to see my little girl grow into a beautiful woman. And I know I'm doing the right thing." Julia could still sense something was wrong.

A month after graduation. Julia was accepted to NYU, Dad was estatic. But his mood was still the same, no matter how much he tried to hide it. Night. Julia heard sounds coming from her father's room. Was he having a nightmare? Was he dreaming of Mom? She padded her way down the hall to his room and peeked in.

She screamed.

Dad was changing in his sleep. He became a wolf; his face elongated, hair sprouting all over his body, like in that movie _An American Werewolf in London_. He heard her scream and woke up, changing back to a non-wolf father. He looked and her and burst into tears.

He mumbled, "I'm sorry," over and over. Julia stood there, tears running down her face. She watched the man that was her world suffering in pain. She walked over to him and sat down on the bed, and held him tight. They both cried the pain out.

He told her he was a mutant. He told her he had been able to change himself into a wolf-like creature since he was fifteen, and that he had kept it secret. He knew how bad mutants had it. He was lucky; he could pass for human.

He told her he was scared that he was becoming more animal than man. The instincts and the feelings he had were strange and arousing at the same time. Every so often he would go out late at night, change and run. He would let the animal take over and run it out, and he would be fine for a few months.

He had horrible guilt over Julia's mother. He told her, between wracking sobs, that he was responsible for her mother dying in childbirth, that the difficult labor that killed her had to be because he was mutant and she wasn't. Julia held him and told him, "No." That night was long and difficult and they both became closer than ever.

Julia prepared to go to college. She started studying genetics on her own time, and in particular what make a mutant. She saw several cases similar to her father's. His DNA was confused, mixed with a strand that is predominated in the _canis lupus_ family. It was like the scientific form of lycanthropy. She knew Dad was finding it harder and harder to supress it, and worried for him. She went off to college, worried about him, determined to help him.

Two years passed. Dad was getting worse. He closed himself off from his friends, and seemed to only be going through the motions at work. He told her he was going out almost every night, roaming the woods, searching for prey. She was worried. Then he was gone.

She was home in a flash. He was gone. Did he disappear into the wolf? A call from a stranger told her. He was in a facility in Canada called "Weapon M." The caller was anonomyous. The caller told her to hurry, or the father she knew would be gone.

She hurried. She found out all she could about the facility. She had computer hackers at NYU help her, and they were able to supply her with some fake IDs, good enough to get her in the front door. After that, they told her, she was on her own.

The trip was long. She was nervous of being caught, scared she would be too late. The facility looked like a fortress. Gray and cold, as if it was out of out of a old horror picture. She walked in with her forged credentials. No one batted an eye. There were so many people there, almost like a small city.

Julia found the files she needed. She found what they were doing to her father and she cried. Tears blurring her vision, she read how they started to splice his DNA with other animal and lizard types, in an attempt to breed a monster, a soldier that could be controlled with pain and suffering.

Julia found out where he was. She made her way into the lab, and saw him in a cage. He was naked, and he was bruised and he was alone. He was sobbing softly in the corner, and suddenly he stopped. He turned his head up and she knew he was blind. He groped for a handheld and stood up. "Julia?" His voice was a rasp, and Julia burst into tears.

"Julia, leave. Please. Go now! Please." His voice cracked and he leaned against the bars of his cell. She walked up to him and and held his hand. She caressed his face and sobbed.

"You are my whole world," she said. He smiled and the tears running down his face weren't from pain.

Then the lab doors opened and soldiers burst in. A little man in a white coat led them. He reminded Julia of Peter Lorre from _The Maltese Falcon_.

The soldiers pulled her away from the cage. Doctor Psycho walked up to her and smiled. "The daughter. We knew you would come. Are you a mutant as well? Well, we can find out soon enough." He motioned for the soldiers to take her away and Julia heard an awful scream of animal rage.

It was her father.

He screamed and howled and repeated her name, over and over. His body contorted and the soldiers looked in horror as he grew,and grew, and became a monster...

Minutes later, Julia was covered in blood that was not her own, running away from the lab, out of the room, running away from the thing that used to be her father.

And she had been running ever since.

Half a bottle and several cigarettes later, her story was done. I stood up and pulled the comm out of my pocket. All I had to do was enter a code and my friends would come running.

She was crying and I sat down next to her and held her. She pulled away and wiped the tears from her eyes. She reached into her bag and pulled out a file.

"This is the file I took from that goddam place. Look at it, and tell me you can let it stand one day longer."

I flipped through the pages. A name struck me as familiar. A little more reading and I knew why. The director was a low-level tech in the 'Weapon X' program. I sighed, and sat down on the bed. All I had to do was enter a code and my friends would come running...

I put the comm away and looked at her. "I'll help you. I have a problem with people experimenting on mutants, since I am one and all."

Julia nodded her head. "I know. They did things to you, didn't they? Those..knives in your hands." She reached out and held my hand, running her fingers over the back where my claws extended.

"Yeah," I replied softly. "They did."

I held her close and kissed her softly on her forehead. She leaned up and kissed me on the lips. We fell to the bed, our animal passions taking over. Sex is like death; it goes on forever, it ends too quickly. We tried to chase our demons away with ourselves, rawness of our humanity laid bare and open. The scent of her sweat drove me harder, she screamed and dug her nails in my back, drawing blood.

We laid in the dark, smoking silently. Her arms were warm and comforting, and I never wanted to leave that place we visited together, that common ground we suddenly had. She sensed I was brooding and kissed me and told me she was glad she was there to protect her.

I knew then I would have to kill her father.


End file.
